Comments: Emotional Mastery (Part 1)

{Discussion of: http://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/forum/poker-39197.htm }

great post, I believe this is the foundation for your sessions, tournaments, obviously without it you won't last very long. I've never deemed myself an emotional guy until I started playing poker.

But recently I have started to grasp control of my emotions. Basically to me tilt is : your subconcious is geared toward one result of whatever happens during a hand, session or tournament and expects a certain result, until the opposite happens.

AOK, as I just said, you aren't the one to talk about emotional mastery. This sort of advice is cheap.

If you puit your money in the pot with the best hand, then you did the best you could and you shouldn't feel bad.

If you donked your money away, then maybe you SHOULD feel bad for treating poker like a craps table. If your bad decisions hurt enough maybe you ought not to make them.

I've heard estimates that between 75% and 90% of all poker players lose money, which means that many people should not be playing, period. Taking a "pause" only delays the inevitable trip to El Busto.

Most bad players know that they are bad players, so they only do play money. They know their limits. I respect that.

Yaku, anyone can become AT LEAST a break even player - Anyone who puts some time and effort in can become very good - Your response is pointless and just shows a lack of respect....

thanks AOK -

Really a great post.

Just search abit on wiki, there are some really interesting psychological theories that seem to apply to poker as well.

For example:

*Last edited by aokrongly on Tue, 22 Jan 2008, 4:25pm; edited 2 times in total*

If you're going to keep posting rebuttals to anything AOK posts, at least make some kind of sense.

Blondino, the more you know about the dynamics of poker, the better you realize that bad beats, suckouts and lucky catches are just part of the game. Everybody goes on tilt sometimes, but you can at least be ready for it

As far as fish go, they will always be around. So if an honest inquirer says he's constantlylosing money or "breaking even," I'll tell him he needs to curtail his game.

*Last edited by aokrongly on Tue, 22 Jan 2008, 4:23pm; edited 1 time in total*

nice post, aok.
pointless posts, Yakuman.

AOK, I never said anything about wiining _fast_. If you're still losing after, say, 100K hands, you either need to step up your game or go do something else. Not everybody is capable of being a winning player, because the skill set involves math, logic and emotional intelligence.

For example, I stink at golf. So I don't play. I 'll try my best in a recreational game with colleagues, but I have no fantasies that I'll ever be a winning player. I'm a Play Money golfer. What's wrong with that?

Or say somebody is the sort that goes all with TPTK all the time. Neither I nor you say this is a good idea. But pretend that somebody did. He's lose his stack regularly, probably blaiming it on "beat beats," "suckouts" or the ever-popular "doom switch." If he goes on tilt, that may actually be a good thing. If he keeps booting himself in the head enough times, maybe he'll quit donking away his buyins.

Tilt is your mind telling you something bad has happened. I agree that once should not play poker while emotionally distressed. Nevertheless, going off and walking the dog or sweeping the floor once it hits may not be the best solution.

Aok- thanks for sharing this. this topic is usually discussed in bits and pieces, but its nice to have some good fully laid out thoughts and strategies for it. I have played over a year now and this is one thing I really didnt focus enough on improving.

And it's important not to generalize tilting to being a bad player in general, eg yakuman's posts. I have won since I started over a year ago, with big thanks to posters like Aok and others in this website, but no doubt still experience tilt and have not worked on it as much as other equally important skills like folding marginals, reads, adapting, aggression, etc.

Man, aok... I don't think I know anyone that can write about this topic as well as you... Along with your Psych of Losing, this is another GREAT post.